SPECULATION: 2010 ORTB North America Meet?

[Philberto]

Hey, just throwing it out there, but what is the potential level of interest in a relatively centrally-located meet for all ORTB members in 2010? Just curious, and maybe something can come of this if we can pull off a logistics miracle.

[Hatchet669]

we did this before with disasterous results.. cause non off roaders wanted to take there trucks in at MORA... we did get Roadie and Alek over to Missoura...

[Philberto]

Ah, but that was an OS meet... I'd like to think we're all a little less "stock" than that.

[Trail X]

Can you find a place that is scenic, has trails, and is centrally located? Gonna be a hard thing to find.

[Philberto]

Hence the lead-up time... Finding the place shouldn't be as hard as getting the people there.

[Gordinho80]

Find a place. Given the location, dates of event, and other cicumstances, I'm sure I could convince the future Mrs. Gordinho to take a trip out...

[Trail X]

Southwest South Dakota. You've got buffalo national grasslands, badlands national park, and black hills national forest.

[Philberto]

That sounds agreeable to me... Don't we have a member in North Dakota? Could be useful for scouting.

[The Roadie]

As long as the "central" location is calculated as a weighted distance to interesting/challenging/scenic/and world-class offroading. Socal is just about balanced by Colorado, so the epicenter in my humble opinion would be Moab or Grand Staircase-Escalante, UT. Too much of the east of the rockies is uninteresting, really, and the terrain is duplicated elsewhere. No offense meant to the east, but it's just older, and I grew up there, and already saw most of the historical places from Chicago to the Atlantic.

Regional meets make a LOT more sense. And they get exponentially tougher to put together the more folks you have.

Personally, if I'm working and can afford the fees, I'd rather just have a bunch of us meet at the next Overland Expo. http://www.ovexpo.com/Home.html Mid-April, 2010 in Southern Arizona. $255 single/$465 family - per vehicle.

[Philberto]

Also a great idea... I had Colorado on my mind as a possible location for a NA meet, but didn't know how it would work out with East-Coasters. I also have a friend coming out around Easter-ish, so if I can convince him that it's worth it to stop in Colorado... well...


Wasn't there an Overland Expo here in LA not too long ago? Or was that some other offroad-related expo?

[Trail X]

My vote can't really weigh in anyways with my current situation. I know nothing about any of those areas so I couldn't coordinate.

My old car club always had an annual national meet at a racetrack. They had a showing of like 200 people of their 8000-some members. So if the same percentage holds true here... We can expect maybe 5 total. Yay, national meet! Hell, we only had 5 show up for TECORE... and that's a much shorter drive.

I really think that for now we need to just host some regional meets and gain membership. If this forum is still going strong in a few years, it may then be time for a 'national' meet... and it won't be in Missouri.

[Hatchet669]

and it won't be in Missouri.

u have mine and roadies vote there...

no more banjos...

[Philberto]

Can't go to Missouri anyways... my ex-girlfriend lives there.

[Gordinho80]

:Iagree:

Can't go to Missouri anyways... my ex-girlfriend lives there.

Damn... that's some restraining order... 69k sq miles????

[Saxis]

:Iagree:

Can't go to Missouri anyways... my ex-girlfriend lives there.

Damn... that's some restraining order... 69k sq miles????

Maybe he has mistaken Missouri for "misery"? Same thing, really...

[MrSmithsTB]

I'd like to say I would be in for this. Obviously, we need to pencil in some plans so costs and time off could be estimated. Somewhere central would require the right and left coasters to make room for a couple days of travel each way and ample time for meeting/exploring the surrounding terrains. Lodging, food, repair allowance when away from home, etc will all be contributing factor for everyone. I would love to go straight to California and run with everyone out there, but the $1000+ in fuel alone takes it off the table... So, lets get some ideas rolling and see what can't be figured out. Worse to worse, we could break it down in to two or three simultaneous events across the country, with documented video, tracking of the other groups, etc etc etc

[That1Guy]

No matter how fun/awesome this would be, I dont think that there would be a chance of having a 50% or more turn out. Figure in fuel, money for food, money or camping, and money for possibly having to get towed back to your home state, I think this trip would be quite expensive for such a little turn out.

[Philberto]

Anyways, I'll be going out to OX if I can afford the time off work... Thanks for sharing that, Bill!


No restraining order... current GF will kill her if they're in the same state though

[Philberto]

I like the idea of multiple simultaneous events... and there'd be extra motivation to attend, because those who didn't would have to sit by themselves on the forums while we were gone.

I still think that given enough time, and the planning abilities of everybody here, we could figure out some plans and have everybody save enough money to make the trip...

Like I posted in the thread title, this is pure speculation at this point, and I'd like to see everybody's opinion on this before any actual planning begins.

[That1Guy]

I like the idea of multiple simultaneous events... and there'd be extra motivation to attend, because those who didn't would have to sit by themselves on the forums while we were gone.

I still think that given enough time, and the planning abilities of everybody here, we could figure out some plans and have everybody save enough money to make the trip...

Like I posted in the thread title, this is pure speculation at this point, and I'd like to see everybody's opinion on this before any actual planning begins.

if this could get figured out, I would be willing to give it a thought. I would have to plan on bringing atleast 2 grand, for just in case, and then you also always have to have those dang souveniers. so if it gets planned and my financial situation is looking good, you can count me in for my first ever multiple sate-just for fun- road trip.